Monday, April 04, 2016

Iraq snapshot

Monday, April 4, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, the UN releases fatality figures for March, new rumor of Haider al-Abadi being replaced as prime minister emerges, and much more.

Haider al-Abadi is the current prime minister of Iraq. He was installed by US President Barack Obama in August of 2014.

He hasn't been very successful.

He was supposed to come up with a political solution to address the country's various crises but he's been unable or unwilling to do that and Sunnis continue to feel persecuted because . . . they are being persecuted.

This persecution began under the previous prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. It led to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq. It continues to fuel the Islamic State in Iraq.

But Haider ignores that and so much more.

Mainly, he ignores the Constitution.

He took it upon himself, for example, to declare that Iraq had no vice presidents -- supposedly ousting three people out of their jobs.

But they still haven't been removed. And it was really against the Constitution to go about it the way Haider did.

Ayad Allawi, Osama al-Nujafi and Nouri al-Maliki are the three vice presidents.

Currently, Haider's attempting to circumvent the Constitution again.

This time he wants to dispose of the Cabinet of Ministers and replace them with a new set of nominees.

CATCH NEWS notes, "In one incident, a suicide car bomb killed five in Basra, the largest
city in Iraq, while five others were killed when a convoy of the Popular
Mobilization Force (PMF) was targeted in Mashahdeh town of Baghdad." They note over 60 injured in the bombings while AP counts 29 dead.

Baghdad, 01 April 2016 – A total of 1,119 Iraqis were killed and
another 1,561 were injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed
conflict in Iraq in March 2016*, according to casualty figures recorded
by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

A total of 544 members of the Iraqi Security Forces
(including Peshmerga, SWAT and militias fighting alongside the Iraqi
Army but excluding Anbar Operations) were killed and 365 were injured.

The
overall casualty figures are up from the previous month of February,
where a total of 670 were killed and 1,290 were injured.

The
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG)
for Iraq, Mr. Ján Kubiš, expressed his deep concern at the continuing
violence and loss of life and injury in Iraq.

“I am extremely
disturbed at the continuing loss of life and injury as a result of
terrorism, violence and armed conflict. It is totally unacceptable that
civilians should bear the brunt of violence,” Mr. Kubiš said.

“My
hope is that the proposed reforms will be implemented and will lead to
an eventual normalcy in this beautiful country”, SRSG Kubiš added.

According
to information obtained by UNAMI from the Health Directorate in Anbar,
the Governorate suffered a total of 201 Civilian casualties (64 killed
and 137 injured). Figures are updated until 30 March, inclusive.

*
CAVEATS: Figures for Anbar are updated until 30 March, inclusive. In
general, UNAMI has been hindered in effectively verifying casualties in
conflict areas. Figures for casualties from Anbar Governorate are
provided by the Health Directorate and are noted below. Casualty figures
obtained from the Anbar Health Directorate might not fully reflect the
real number of casualties in those areas due to the increased volatility
of the situation on the ground and the disruption of services. In some
cases, UNAMI could only partially verify certain incidents. UNAMI has
also received, without being able to verify, reports of large numbers of
casualties along with unknown numbers of persons who have died from
secondary effects of violence after having fled their homes due to
exposure to the elements, lack of water, food, medicines and health
care. For these reasons, the figures reported have to be considered as
the absolute minimum.

And the US Defense Dept announced/claimed:Strikes in IraqFighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 10 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.-- Near Hit, three strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit
and destroyed an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb, an ISIL heavy machine gun, an
ISIL recoilless rifle, and an ISIL staging area and denied ISIL access
to terrain.-- Near Kirkuk, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL assembly areas and an ISIL heavy machine gun.-- Near Kisik, a strike suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Mosul, two strikes destroyed an ISIL supply cache, an
ISIL command and control node, and an ISIL tactical vehicle and
suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons storage facility and an ISIL staging facility.-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL supply cache.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target.

These bombings began in August of 2014 and have continued daily ever since.

As peace 'leaders' in the US struggle to find their voice, the hawk side of the equation is at no loss for words.

In December, we passed legislation – which is now law – to help
strengthen our Visa Waiver program and ensure that foreign fighters
who’ve traveled to Syria and Iraq do not have easy access to the U.S.
And recently, I successfully pressed the administration to apply extra
scrutiny to individuals traveling to and from Libya. This is especially
critical given that an estimated 5,000 Europeans have traveled to fight
on the front lines with ISIS in recent years.We’ve also passed legislation to require the administration to step
up efforts to combat ISIS’ use of social media, declare ISIS atrocities
against Christians and other religious minorities genocide, and – just
last week – we passed common-sense legislation to help improve border
security by establishing minimum standards for foreign countries at
airports and other points of entry.Of course, we still have much more work to do. Especially as we are
facing an enemy that is technologically sophisticated and always
evolving. So I’m advocating for strong policies that give our pilots and
special forces already on the ground the flexibility they need to
ensure terrorists have no sanctuary. I’m also continuing to press the
administration to get desperately needed weapons in the hands of the
forces in Iraq and Syria – including the Kurds and Sunni tribes – that
have been most effective in fighting ISIS, and step up training of
African forces.

Ultimately, however, it is the president who must lead the fight to
defeat and destroy ISIS. President Obama is the commander in chief.
Instead of offering up tired half-measures, he ought to be working with
Congress on a new approach.

As long as the peace 'leaders' in the US stay silent and refuse to call for diplomacy and for Iraq to craft a political solution, the only option the American people are being offered is war, war and more war.

Vice President Ayad Allawi Tweeted a call for the quick liberation of Falluja. He also noted liberating Falluja does not mean destroying its homes or leaving the people the victims of hunger or thirst.

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